Campagnolo - Any point?

[Cookster15]

Too expensive and it’s heavier?

Campagnolo Super Record WR review: Testing the world's most expensive groupset

Super Record WR represents the pinnacle of Campagnolo's groupset technology, but does the performance ultimately fall short?

www.cyclingnews.com

 

[Wyndbrook]

Major point.
Try freewheeling in a group ride with Sram, noisey as hell, everyone knows straight away who's sat in the group taking it easy. Surprising as they originally bought all their technology from a German company,

 

[froze]

Too expensive and it’s heavier?

Campagnolo Super Record WR review: Testing the world's most expensive groupset

Super Record WR represents the pinnacle of Campagnolo's groupset technology, but does the performance ultimately fall short?

www.cyclingnews.com

There isn't any materials, labor, technology in any group set worth the kind of money they rip us off for, but it's the cycling world, and the cycling industry thinks that most cyclists are filthy rich, and that most of us are just plain stupid with our money, and will believe any marketing BS and go buy that expensive stuff.

I don't care what anyone says, but no one can tell me that these group sets, like Campy Super Record, or Shimano Dura Ace, has more technology, more labor, more money to buy the materials to make them then a Yamaha V Star 250 that costs less than $5,000 brand new, heck you can even get a brand new BMW G310R for under $5,000...and it's German made! The other weird thing about todays group sets, they don't even have the artistry of the expert machining skills that the old 60's and 70's era derailleurs had, these new high end derailleurs are just stamped out 4 layers carbon fiber, and they all have that disgustingly ugly industrial look.

Now I have to go hide from the rocks that are going to be thrown at me for saying that stuff here.

 

[Cookster15]

There isn't any materials, labor, technology in any group set worth the kind of money they rip us off for, but it's the cycling world, and the cycling industry thinks that most cyclists are filthy rich, and that most of us are just plain stupid with our money, and will believe any marketing BS and go buy that expensive stuff.

I don't care what anyone says, but no one can tell me that these group sets, like Campy Super Record, or Shimano Dura Ace, has more technology, more labor, more money to buy the materials to make them then a Yamaha V Star 250 that costs less than $5,000 brand new, heck you can even get a brand new BMW G310R for under $5,000...and it's German made! The other weird thing about todays group sets, they don't even have the artistry of the expert machining skills that the old 60's and 70's era derailleurs had, these new high end derailleurs are just stamped out 4 layers carbon fiber, and they all have that disgustingly ugly industrial look.

Now I have to go hide from the rocks that are going to be thrown at me for saying that stuff here.

Agree 100%. My younger brother is into motor cross bikes he always reminds me how those bikes cost similar or less to a team spec race road bike - plus motor cross bikes are far more complex, have high power motors, suspension and also use similar materials like carbon and titanium.

But I think the industry is right - as you say most of us are just plain stupid and will believe any marketing BS. Herd mentality.

Case in point - disc brakes. Discs added about half a kilo to bike weight. They are nice to use when they don’t squeal but give questionable benefits for skilled or experienced riders. But discs on road bikes were new so people had to buy them. The industry then withdrew rim brakes from the market. Then after the ignominy of Peter Sagan’s Specialized Venge at 8.4Kg the industry was forced to find further weight savings. Along with electronic shifting and now 12 speed this exploded the costs. The price of team spec race bikes has almost doubled in 8 years. That is way above the general rate of inflation even with Covid.

 

[Cookster15]

Major point.
Try freewheeling in a group ride with Sram, noisey as hell, everyone knows straight away who's sat in the group taking it easy. Surprising as they originally bought all their technology from a German company,

I am riding on DT Swiss hubs. Beautiful sounding freewheeling. Thanks for revealing which brand makes the ugly loud sound.

 

[42x16ss]

Campagnolo has always been an innovator over the years, and unlike Shimano and SRAM at least you can completely strip down and rebuild their shifters. A crash isn't usually a death sentence for a Campagnolo shifter.

The constant gripe I always hear (other than the price) is that the shift feel is heavier than Shimano. This is true out of the box, but actually gets lighter and faster over time with their mechanical groupsets.

Then there's the fact they actually have real backwards compatibility *cough* shimano *cough* and continue to make high end mechanical and rim brake groupsets.

 

[Mayomaniac]

I like the fact that they still offer you the option to have high level mechanical groupsets.
Chorus + a really light crankset holds up against everything, performance, weight and money wise. I'm legit thinking of getting a high level Chinese frame built up with that instead of the fancy electric shifting stuff.

 

[42x16ss]

I like the fact that they still offer you the option to have high level mechanical groupsets.
Chorus + a really light crankset holds up against everything, performance, weight and money wise. I'm legit thinking of getting a high level Chinese frame built up with that instead of the fancy electric shifting stuff.

A friend rides a Winspace SLC 3.0 with Chorus and Boras and some lighter components, great climbing bike.

 

[Mayomaniac]

A friend rides a Winspace SLC 3.0 with Chorus and Boras and some lighter components, great climbing bike.

Nice, I'm actually thinking about doing that with a Winspace or a Bigrock bike. Maybe not the full blown climbing bikes, but the more aero ones. His bike must be really light.
Maybe a light crankset like Cybrei or something similar on top.
The only argument against it that I've heared is that it is harder to get spare parts for Campagnolo compared to Shimano or Sram, but they are not that exotic, mainly here in Italy. It's not like I'm getting some weird Chinese groupset.

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

OMG, this thread has turned into WeightWeenies!
I agree with the sentiments above. I've never owned Sram for road, only Shimano or Campag (though my mountain bikes have Sram electronic). For road I have Ultegra Di2 currently. Nice shifting grouppo to be sure, but very utilitarian, whereas Campag has an undeniable artistic appeal (to me). And I was a huge fan of the mechanical thumb shifters.
I'm frankly sad to see Campag fall into irrelevance.

 

[42x16ss]

OMG, this thread has turned into WeightWeenies!
I agree with the sentiments above. I've never owned Sram for road, only Shimano or Campag (though my mountain bikes have Sram electronic). For road I have Ultegra Di2 currently. Nice shifting grouppo to be sure, but very utilitarian, whereas Campag has an undeniable artistic appeal (to me). And I was a huge fan of the mechanical thumb shifters.
I'm frankly sad to see Campag fall into irrelevance.

Has anyone else managed to get mechanical to make multiple shifts at once in both directions yet? Campagnolo mastered that when? Late 90s?